|
|
Tropical Storm Alpha
| Title |
Tropical Storm Alpha |
| Description |
While Hurricane Wilma was bringing high winds and rain to western Cuba, newly formed Tropical Storm Alpha was raining on eastern Cuba and the island of Hispaniola. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took this image at 1:40 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on October 23, 2005. At this time, Alpha had developed into a tropical storm and was weakening back into a less-powerful tropical depression, even though some of the spiral structure characteristic of tropical storms can be seen in this image. Sustained winds in the storm ran as high as 55 kilometers per hour (35 miles per hour), and the storm brought substantial rains to the area. This heavy rain was responsible for three deaths reported in Haiti, in which individuals were drowned when flash flooding overwhelmed them. Alpha is the 22nd named storm of the 2005 hurricane season, exhausting the entire alphabetical list of names chosen by the National Hurricane Center. (Letters for which there are only a few possible names, such as "X" and "Q", are not used in the list of names). The naming system moves on to naming storms by letters of the greek alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma, and so on). This season is the first time this part of the naming system has been called into use. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
|
Tropical Storm Noel
| Title |
Tropical Storm Noel |
| Description |
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this photo-like image of Tropical Storm Noel as the storm passed over the Bahamas Islands on November 1, 2007, at 2:15 p.m., local time. At that time, Noel had sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour (65 miles per hour) and was moving northeast at 23 km/hr (14 mph), said the National Hurricane Center. [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2007/al16/al162007.public_a.020.shtml? ] The storm later intensified into a Category 1 hurricane and tracked north along the east coast of the United States. Noel spreads messily across hundreds of kilometers in this image. The center of the storm, a tightly concentrated mass of clouds, sits nearly directly over the Bahamas, while clusters of thunderstorms stretch north and east from the center. In its rampage across the Caribbean, Noel caused at least 115 deaths, primarily in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, reported the Associated Press on November 2. Though the storm was relatively weak, it moved slowly over the two nations, dumping as much as 550 millimeters (21 inches) of rain. (View a satellite-based rainfall map. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14605 ]) The heavy rain caused deadly flooding and mudslides. The large image provided above is at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC |
|
|
